Africa in pictures: 18-24 April 2014

A selection of photographs from across the African continent this week.

A man holding two Libyan flags flies in to the air using a water jetpack in the sea off Libya’s capital, Tripoli on Saturday.

The day before, supporters of Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika wave their national flag as they hang out of a car in celebration in the capital, Algiers, after it was announced that the 77-year-old leader had been re-elected for a fourth term in office.

Also on Friday, Zimbabweans celebrate 34 years of the country's independence at a stadium in the capital, Harare, where President Robert Mugabe lit the “independence flame”.

South African athlete Erst Van Dyk wins the men’s wheelchair race at the Boston Marathon on Monday for a record 10th time.

Christian worshippers in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday…

… the Easter re-enactment is also performed in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan, with actors pretending to be the Roman guards who whipped Jesus Christ as he carried the cross to Golgotha, or the hill of Calvary, where he was crucified.

During a Good Friday prayer service in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, a woman reads her Bible at an Orthodox church.

In Johannesburg, South Africans dance in the stadium at Ellis Park during a Pentecostal Good Friday service.

The next day in South Africa’s coastal city of Cape Town, hundreds of people from different religious groups march to parliament to show their concern about alleged government corruption and the controversial $23m upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s private residence in Nkandla.

Easter Monday sees festivities erupt in Nigeria's main city of Lagos with the city's carnival. It is the fifth time Lagos has hosted the Easter carnival with floats, music and colourful costumes…

Here a giant effigy of Bola Tinubu, a senator and Lagos state’s former governor, is paraded through the streets…

Current state governor Babatunde Fashola said the carnival represented the real spirit of Lagos. All the fabrics, feathers and sequins used for the costumes sold out in the city’s markets, Nigeria’s Daily Times reports...

People also dressed up as part of the competition to be chosen as the king and queen of the carnival.

Two days later on Wednesday, boys play football on the main street of a predominately Muslim neighbourhood of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

Here French peacekeepers in an armoured vehicle escort a convoy of Muslims fleeing the violence in Bangui on Sunday. Muslim civilians in CAR are being targeted by mainly Christian militias in revenge for the seizure of power by mainly Muslim rebels last year.

On Wednesday, supporters of Senegal’s former President Abdoulaye Wade gather in the capital, Dakar, to welcome him home. However, he did not arrive, saying he was denied permission to land – an accusation the government of his rival President Macky Sall denies. Mr Wade moved to France after losing to Mr Sall in 2012.